2 or 3 years ago.

The car's been driven 4000 miles since then.

Tell me about it.  I don't plan on keeping the car for a long time.  The
problem is that I have to have money first.  I got the car from my Mom at
121,600 miles.  (Before the Pontiac, she had an '86 Celebrity with the 2.5
and got rid of it when the head was in need of replacement.  Someone took it
for $50 and from what I heard, the car's still running today.  Of course, I
assume it has a new head.)  I knew its history of problems.  My brother
originally bought it for $2800 8 or 9 years ago.  Supposedly an old lady had
owned it and her husband passed away.  It at the time had around 60,000
miles.  When he bought it, it had a very bad starting problem, which turned
out to take three expensive things to fix it - one of which was the fuel
pump.  At only 60,000 miles?  My dad had a reliable Caravan that never
needed one, and it had a starting problem, so he replaced the fuel pump to
find out that it was the fuel pressure regulator.  It had around 220,000
miles at the time.  The engine ran out of oil 6000 miles later because it
developed a major oil leak, and my brother needed to borrow it and ran it
out of oil because he's not very responsible to check the oil.  (By the way,
I checked my tranny the other day and it's getting a little low, so I'll
have to add some more fluid tomorrow.)

The problems that my car already had when I got it:
A/C
Won't start in sub-zero temperatures (I remember when I had to go out and
start it for Mom when she worked)
Tires worn (although not as bad as they are now)
Stalling
Water leaks
One less muffler replaced (I had to do it once a few months after I got the
car, luckily the old one had a life-time warranty)
Brake pads wore out - made a loud screech even when driving and not braking
Oil leak (valve cover gasket)

NEW PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED SINCE I GOT THE CAR (SOME OF THEM HAVE BEEN FIXED)
I'VE HAD THE CAR FOR TWO YEARS.  (Yeah I know, no shouting... lol)
Starting problem here and there
Speaker cutting in and out
The grindy noise when the engine runs when you first start it in the cold
Tranny fluid leak
Struts
Noise from the rear
TPS
One more muffler (FIXED for free)
Entire rear brake job (FIXED - both wheel cylinders were leaking and the
mechanic said I was lucky that I never lost my brakes completely - cost:
$300)
Tranny would not go sometimes when you put it into drive (FIXED - needed
fluid change)
Rotors (FIXED - wore out when we replaced the brake pads)
Calipers (FIXED - locking up)
Oxygen sensor (FIXED - almost had to pull over when the engine lost all of
its power and flooring it made no difference in the RPM - SES came on)
Antifreeze leak (FIXED - the leak was small at the time)
Oil leak - twice (FIXED - blew the valve cover gasket twice, finally had to
use silicone to fix it)
Seat belts wore out